Notable Friendlies
Not everything in the 41st millenium is so desolate. Every now and then, the Acolytes will run into people who will assist them in their endeavors. Inquisitorial Agents While the military handles armed confrontations, it is the Inquisition's job to creep in the shadows and eliminate the enemy infiltrators within. As such, the Inquisition dispatches their operatives and spies to gather information that Inquisitors and their Acolytes can utilise on their missions. Octus Wollsley: Inquisitor Blackheart's personal adjutant as appointed by Lord Inquisitor Novus, Wollsley happily bears the brunt of the buerocratic strain that comes Blackheart's way, as well as keeps him informed of any and all incoming long-range communications and notifications from the Inquisition. He himself was a former Acolyte of Novus, and during that time had many of his own adventures and experiances, so is quite skilled at being an Adept on his own. Blackheart commonly (and sometimes purposefully) mispronounces his name, to which Wollsley simply grits his jaw and smiles. Hazael Skiriam: though she is technically not part of the Inquisition, Hazael is a student of the Schola Progenium, a stormtrooper candidate training to become the best soldier she can. The daughter of Jericus Vandemar and Rhia Skiriam, Hazael was born on Phalax, but only lived there to the age of six, when her mother was finally fully charged for murdering her sergeant and mind-cleansed, shipped out as a grenadier for her skills. Hazael herself was sent to the Schola Progenium, as Rhia's parents were both dead and the Vandemar family too strung out on their own military duties to take her in. Instead, the Administratum took her on the tithe ship with her mother to Scintilla, where the seven year old girl was placed into storm trooper training for her already astonishing discipline. She only stayed a few months, however, before her own father and Asmodyus Novus visited. Jericus reasoned to leave her there, wanting to spare her the horrors of the galaxy, but Asmodyus immediately brought Hazael to Apocrypha, where she has lived for the past eight (1) years as a part of the Novus household and one of the top storm trooper candidates at the local progenium. (1. As of the Liberation of Phalanx) Guardsmen Many times, in areas where armed security simply can't be trusted to hired thugs and mercenaries, the military must help the Acolytes keep on the down low and enforce the Inquisitor's will. Even their commanding officer cannot legally disobey their orders...unless they take drastic measures. The Imperial Guard deploy in great numbers with enormous firepower, and is some of the heaviest and most skilled backup the Cell can call upon. 168th Phalanx: from the same homeworld as Jericus Vandemar, the Phalanx 168th are ork fighters, selected as the best of the best from the PDF and sent away to fight for the Emperor. They've no love for the Administratum or its agents due to the abandonment of their world, but they've less love for rebels or heretics. The 168th is also the longest running Phalanx regiment, having been fighting and being reinforced for almost five-hundred years. When the 168th was stationed on Midgard, they were caught up in a chaos influenced civil war, and suffered severe casualties. Since then, they've gone back to Phalanx to reinforce, combined with other units from both the PDF and another half strength regiment, the 212th. With the newly christened 168/212th Phalanx Conservator Regiment glued together, the formation was sent to participate in the Angvin Crusade. Little did they know what awaited them... -Colonel Regina Severine: the commander of the 168th, Severine is a thirty-year veteran herself, with her original posting at captain. Since then, her skills and the ability to survive battle after battle has seen her elevated up to commanding rank, where she's been the past ten years. She's not one to give any quarter and doesn't expect to recieve any either, and while she will not uselessly waste the lives of her men she also knows the importance of spending a few here and there. She has a good quality left augmetic eye, undetectable save for the fact that she can move her eyes independantly. -Rhia Skiriam: the mother of Jericus' daughter Hazael, Rhia wasn't allowed to leave Phalanx because she killed her drill sergeant in a fit of anger. Due to her violent temper and rage in battle, she was highly valued as a soldier but unable to control her anger. As such, she was sentenced to never qualify for the Imperial Guard, something that the ruling court martial board knew she greatly wanted. She became furious with Jericus when he qualified for the Guard, and didn't see him again for six years. However, on Midgard she appeared again, drafted as a mind-cleansed Grenadier (a popular method of relocating Phalaxian criminals or individuals of trouble, as Phalanx has no prisons). After this, however, she gained her memories back, though refused to return to Phalanx, thus turning her back on Jericus, her daughter and her planet. She now serves as a bodyguard on Inquisitor Steele's personal retinue. Merov PDF: though their combat experiance is little, Merov's defenders are a capable force, having repelled pirates and minor ork incursions. However, during the eldar invasion their inexperiance showed, and the majority of the soldiers in the capital city were cut down in less than a day, leaving a skeleton force to resist. It didn't help that most of the commanders were nobles, and had retreated to their estates with their allotments of soldiers in tow. Jericus' mission time was spent mostly trying to collect these remnants together into an effective fighting force, as well as reestablish the PDF's infrastructure. After the mission on Merov was over, the PDF began cleaning up the remaining pockets of eldar and looter resistance, initiating reconstruction on the battered city. * * 190th Brevian Centennials: Brevians are a proud, strong people of warriors. Equipped with lightweight but strong equipment, they specialize in lightning quick blitzes on enemy formations. As a pure infantry force, the Brevians are sometimes seconded as droptroopers for the pure purpose of their 'blow to the back of the head' tactics. * * 51st Harakoni "Warhawks": the Harakoni come from a low gravity world, where everyone learns to fly as a child. As such, the Harakoni dispell any fears of heights or falling even before they become eligible for military enlistment, making them perfect as droptroopers. They wear sturdy carapace armor, and though they are lightly armed they have fluid tactics once they set down on the ground thanks to the gravchutes on their backs, allowing them to wreak havoc from behind enemy lines. The 51st served with skill and distinction against a Chaos uprising on Luterhan XI, as well as disrupting a Tyranid splinter fleet heading for Armageddon. Supplemented by the remnants of the 23rd and 76th Harakoni, the Warhawks are not to be trifled with, thanks to their sheer tenacity and will to survive. -Colonel Flair Kleinsfeldt: a university man, Kleinsfeldt makes it his mission to earn his Guardsmen's respect. To that effect, he sometimes puts himself in a little too much danger, such as establishing his field command post near the very front, is the first man in the regiment to drop, and even picks up a rifle to fight alongside his men as well. Previously the commander of Foxtrot Company, Kleinsfeldt has only been a regimental commander for a year, making him a new man in his shoes. He hides this well with decisive movements and the ability to stand by his choices no matter what. * * * -Major Clarence Strickland: a droptrooper veteran, Strickland started from the bottom, a simple draftee from Harakon. Within a decade, he had risen to sergeant major by way of simple survival, and won the admiration and respect of his fellow troopers. Another decade after that, he was commander of Alpha Company, callsign 'Roughneck.' He is a close-combat and stealth master with extensive hand-to-hand and urban training as well as thirty years of veterancy in the Guard. When Klightus was promoted, many felt that Strickland was gipped by Segmentum Command, as they saw the Captain as the real candidate for the vacant spot of regimental commander. Instead, Strickland accepted his own promotion to major stoically, and has worked alongside Klightus since then. Major Strickland was crushed by a squiggoth in the Third Battle for Omega on Phalanx. His sacrifice ensured that six-hundred Guardsmen escaped from their besieged medivac point. * * * 6th Procyon Motor Legion: the Procyon system's four planets are all unified into one local government, a system rich in metals and lined with factories, even playing host to their own Mechanicus forge world, Alpha Hundar IX (Hundar for short). As such, the Procyons are rich, and supply their few Imperial Guard regiments with unique and top-quality equipment. They prefer solid slug or boltgun weapons as opposed to lasguns, seeing the value in added impact and penetration rather than lightweight, easy to make energy weapons. They wear sturdy armor and all soldiers start from the bottom, leaving only the most experianced warriors to command. Their officers and special forces also carry a unique combat shield with a device capable of turning the entire shield into a shock weapon, making the Procyons a deadly foe at close or long ranges. * -Elana Cimino: Elana was always destined to be a soldier, even when she was born. Birthed to parents who had already been allocated to give up their children to the Guard, Elana was sent to both the progenium and trained at home. Her childhood was full of martial drills, and when she reached the age of fifteen was shipped out immediately to join the Imperial Guard. Elana served with the 6th Procyon Motor Legion for fourteen years, killing eldar, orks and heretics proudly before reaching the rank of Decanus (lieutenant) in the Guardian Corps, the Procyon's special forces group. Elana is a pure professional, all business and no fooling around. Unfortunately, this means she is especially blunt and rather slim on social skills. On Phalanx, her shell was cracked when she found herself falling for Jericus Vandemar, an Inquisiton stormtrooper. Unfortunately, Jericus disappeared shortly after the Rebellion on Phalanx ended, pronounced KIA. Knowing better than to question this, Elana continued serving until she discovered she was pregnant with the late soldier's child, and accepted an early retirement, transferring to Cadia to become a cross-training instructor. There she gave birth to twin boys, Thor and Angelus. * * Phalaxian Planetary Defense Force: the PDF of Phalanx are skilled ork killers, having battled the WAAAGH! that has consumed their planet for the past sixty years. When the Cell arrived at Phalanx, they were skeptical at first of the outsiders, but as their reputation spread they were glad to have the Cell's help. -Warlord Tyrkrieg Sarahn: Sarahn is the man in charge on Phalanx. An ex-Guard commander, he was the last general remaining when the orks struck in their second wave, and rallied everyone, from soldiers to civilians, to the industrial city of Ratchet to make Phalanx's last stand. He takes the war very seriously, and is concerned about the lives of his men and how to use them. -The Vandemar Family: consisting (currently) of Major General Solomon Vandemar, Captain Cimbria Shaw and her children Lieutenant Sabbatine Shaw and Logan Shaw, Jericus' family are militaristic to the extreme. Every member old enough has served in the PDF and continue to do so in some fashion (save Jericus who was recruited into the Guard and Logan who is not old enough). -Lieutenant Avo Skanti: Skanti was only a trooper when he accompanied his battalion to sweep out a power facility in Hive Arcadia. When his unit was butchered by orks, he and his sergeant were extracted by none other than Meghera Zenithra, who recruited Skanti temporarily for a mission to hunt down a witch outside of town. Skanti showed above-average martial prowess and amazing mental fortitude, and was recommended by the assassin for platoon-level command in Operation Leveller. Skanti's father was a soldier as well until he lost his left arm and refused an augmetic, but before then he was a pit brawler, and trained his son in the same fashion he had been trained, to increase mental and physical resilience. -Brigadier General Diane Eckhart: Eckhart is one of Sarahn's chosen few to have recieved juvenat treatments from Phalanx's limited machinery, and its mostly due to her undying belief in Sarahn's continued rule. She was placed in charge of the entire eastern perimeter, based in Hive Madrigal, and saw very little action for the majority of the WAAAGH! After the Battle for Outlook Point, however, Inquisitor Nathanial Blackheart revealed to her evidence of Sarahn's corruption, and her loyalties were changed as she was forced to acknowledge the facts directly in front of her. * Segmentum Command Intelligence (SCI) Not nearly as well-known as the Inquisition, Segmentum Command Intelligence is one of numerous departments that the Guard uses to spy behind enemy lines. It deals with covert black operations and long-term observations and to date remains the single most reliable and successful form of intelligence gathering in the entire Imperium. Their spying skills are second to none save the Assassinorum, but they remain low profile, even more enigmatic to the common citizen than even xenos. This is because while SCI gathers the information, the Inquisition takes the public stage and is assumed to be the one to gather the data. Needless to say, Segmentum Command Intelligence is not eager to disrupt this illusion, but while they technically have as much authority as the Inquisition, there is an ancient debate ever-going onward, and nine-times out of ten the Inquisition will be granted command of a situation. Arbitrators The guardians of galactic law and justice, Arbitrators are more than simple Enforcers. Their paramilitary training and equipment allows them to put down rebellions all over the Imperium, and they even have the power to take over a planet should the governor prove to be heretical or rebellious. Adeptus Astartes The fearsome Space Marines stand eight feet tall, four feet wide and a strong as six regular men. Clad in armor strong enough to shake off most small arms without a scratch and wielding weapons that can easily scythe through enemy ranks like a hot knife through butter, the various Chapters all have fearsome reputations, and are Humanity's finest warriors. It is within their ranks that the most powerful infantry armor in the Imperium is found, for the Space Marines field the ancient and devastating Terminator armor. -Brother-Sergeant Agamarr: an almost two-century veteran, Agamarr was stationed with his Deathwatch squad on Merov to work with the Ulthwe Eldar against their dark brethren.